Leadership Development Top HR Priority For Third Consecutive Year

Leadership development is the top priority for HR in 2025, according to a new survey.

Insights from Gartner found that developing managers is a key focus for the third consecutive year, as three in four revealed feeling overwhelmed by their growing responsibilities.

Among the HR leaders polled by the US-based consulting company, seven in 10 (69%) agreed leaders and managers are not suitable prepared to steer change.

Other organisational HR priorities noted in the top five included organisational culture, strategic workforce planning, change management and HR technology.

The survey of 1,403 HR leaders also found traditional methods of leadership development, such as lectures and seminars, can have a negative impact.

Gartner therefore advises them to start placing more emphasis on “intentionally and strategically enabling repeated peer connections” through networking and team building.

Mark Whittle, vice president of advisory in the Gartner HR practice, said: “HR leaders are defining their priorities in the context of three factors that CEOs are focused on and are impacting the world of work: growth, the power of AI and labour market shifts that are putting pressure on talent strategies.”

The survey further found that fewer than one in three leaders don’t have a clear vision for the culture they want, while 57% of respondents said managers failed to enforce it on their teams. More than half reported that leaders don’t think they’re accountable for exhibiting the desired culture.

Whitte added: “For organisations to deliver on their goals, managers must be prepared to successfully lead both today and tomorrow. Though 75% of organisations have made significant updates to their leadership development programmes, and more than half are increasing spending on leader development, they are not seeing results.”

In terms of strategic workforce planning, two in three (66%) said this is confined to headcount planning and find it hard to show return on investment for their efforts in this area.

Rather than tackle strategic workforce planning on an organisation-wide level, leaders should approach it in terms of smaller, achievable phases, Gartner advises.

Looking at change management, nearly three-quarters (73%) said employees are fatigued from change, and 74% don’t think their managers are equipped to drive change.

Gartner believes HR leaders can improve the effectiveness of change and reduce related fatigue by focusing on determining where transformative change is taking place in the organisation, collaborating with business leaders and change sponsors to evaluate change impact, and identifying and amplifying designated change influencers who are embedded in the process to boost change adoption.

According to the survey, more than half (55%) of HR leaders believe their current technology solutions don’t address their current and future organisational needs, with 46% thinking current solutions hinder rather than enhance employees’ experiences.

 

Originally published on Personnel Today, https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/leadership-development-top-hr-priority-for-third-consecutive-year/